Method and apparatus for producing supercontinuum light for medical and biological applications

ABSTRACT

A method and an apparatus are provided for producing SuperContinuum (SC) light for medical and biological applications is provided. Pulses are focused from a laser system into at least one of a pressurized cell and one or more fibers. A pump pulse is converted into the SC light at a specified rate of repetition. The SC light is applied at the specified rate of repetition to tissue for medical and biological applications.

PRIORITY

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to anprovisional application filed in the United States Patent and TrademarkOffice on Mar. 13, 2009 and assigned Ser. No. 61/209,969, the contentsof which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to SuperContinuum (SC) light,and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for producing the SClight for medical and biological applications.

2. Description of the Related Art

Light is one of nature's most important and versatile phenomena. In amanner similar to that of a courier, light can transfer information fromone point to another, and in a manner similar to that of an alchemist,it can alter matter and stimulate chemical reactions. More specifically,light can initiate and moderate key processes in chemistry, biology andcondensed matter.

The versatility of light is a direct result of the many forms it is ableto take, such as, for example, brief flashes, focused spots, broadcontinuous beams, dim or intense light, polarized light, low- orhigh-frequency light, and light containing many frequencies at once. Thefrequency of visible light determines its color, and is related to thelight's wavelength, i.e., shorter wavelengths correspond to higherfrequencies.

An incandescent bulb emits light across a full visible spectrum,resulting in white light. However, light from an incandescent bulb hasseveral drawbacks. Specifically, this type of light has a relatively lowintensity and brightness. The light from an incandescent bulb is alsoneither coherent nor collimated in a single direction. Therefore, theindividual light particles, or photons, do not oscillate in phase withone another. Lasers do not have the above-mentioned drawbacks thatresult from light of an incandescent bulb. However, instead of emittingwhite light, a laser emits a narrow band of frequencies, resulting inlight of a specific color. For many applications, coherent light at asingle frequency, or a narrow band of frequencies, is more thanadequate. However, having a light source, such as the SC, which combinesthe properties of a laser with those of a broad bandwidth incandescentbulb, provides for a new realm of applications.

Seminal work on the SC's generation was performed when it was discoveredin 1970. See, R. R. Alfano et al., PRL, 24, 592-594, 584-587, 1219-1222,(1970). 100 MegaWatt (MW), 10 picosecond (ps) pulses were focused intocondensed materials in order to produce the SC with a white lightcontinuum of colors. The SC light can be generated over a frequencyoctave using microstructure fibers, holey filters, and photonic crystalfibers, and using modest energies of <100 femtosecond (fs) ps lasers.See, K. J. Ranha et al., Opt. Lett. 25, 25 (2000), and S. Coen, Chau,Leonhardt, and J. Harvey, JOSA B, 26, 753 (2002). Using kilowatt peakpower fs pulses, SC spans from 400 to 1600 nanometers (nm) can begenerated in photonic crystal fibers. For example, 1 meter ofNonLinear-Polarization Maintaining (NL-PM) 750 photonic crystal fibermade by Crystal Fibre Corp. can produce more than an octave, i.e., 1200nm bandwidth using 800 nm 50 fs −67 milliWatt (mW) average power from aTi-sapphire laser. The broad SC spectrum results from Self-PhaseModulation (SPM), 4 Wave Mixing (4WM), and stimulated Raman and Solitongeneration. Thus, the SC light can be generated on a spectrum greaterthan an octave, where 500 to 1000 nm is an octave, and a two octave SCspans from 400 to 1600 nm.

A bright SC beam can be produced by focusing ˜350 microJoule (μJ) 70 fspulses from Ti-sapphire laser systems into a long metallic cylinder of90 centimeters (cm), which contains rare gases, such as, for example,Argon (Ar), Krypton (Kr) and Xenon (Xe), at modest pressures from 2 to30 Atmospheres (atm). See, P. B. Corkum et al., PRL, 57, 2268 (1986).The nonlinear parameter, n₂, for Ar is 9.8×10⁻²⁰ cm²/W atm, for Kr is2.8×10⁻¹⁹ cm²/W atm, and for Xe is 8.2×10⁻²⁰ cm²/W atm. See, Lehmeier etal., Opt. Comm., 56, 67-72 (1985).

A milliJoule (mJ), which is the energy required to lift a paper clipseveral centimeters against the earth's gravity, may appear to be asmall amount of energy. However, when a mJ is packed into a ps andfocused into a tight spot it represents a GigaWatt (GW) of power and anextremely high intensity. With this high intensity, the pulses canpropagate through a few centimeters (cm) of glass, inducing a Kerreffect strong enough to spread the pulses' bandwidth considerably evenin the short time that they passed through the glass by distortion ofthe electron clouds in the material.

Fibers used for SC generation are known as microstructure fibers. Across section of such fibers reveals a pattern of holes that runscontinuously through the entire length of the fibers. In one commonlyused design, the pattern of holes surrounds a solid silica core, similarto a honeycomb with only the central hole filled. The core has a highindex of refraction, whereas the surrounding cladding, with its airholes interspersed with silica, has a lower refraction index. Theconcentric arrangement of refractive indices serves to guide the lightpulses along the fiber. The use of these fibers with zero and anomalousdispersion, has enabled the generation of the SC light extending morethan two octaves from InfraRed (IR) to UltraViolet (UV). The placementof the zero dispersion point in the fibers in blue and Near InfraRed(NIR) will produce pulses covering UV, visible, and NIR regions.

The generation of the SC light in optical fibers has unleashed a widerange of applications. One of the most important and mature of theseapplications is the development of extremely accurate frequencymeasurements and clocks. The SC light is useful in optical frequencycomb techniques, which enable improved accuracy with simpler and smallersystems. Specifically, self-referencing becomes possible when thefrequency comb extends across a full octave. In this approach, thefrequency of light is doubled at the low-frequency end of the spectrumand is used to interfere with light at the high-frequency end.

Researchers are now striving to develop systems capable of measuringfrequencies to a fractional accuracy of 10⁻¹⁶ to 10⁻¹⁸. Such extremeaccuracy would have practical implications for improvements in GlobalPositioning Systems, space navigation, and the alignment of very largearrays of radio telescopes. The systems would also be utilized in testsof special relativity and related fundamental principles such as theisotropy of space, the symmetry of matter and antimatter, and theconstancy of the constants of nature.

Frequency measurements and clocks are two facets of the same technology.Ultimately, the optical frequency comb might enable fractionalaccuracies of 10⁻¹⁸, which would be ideal for timing in opticalcomputers and even for detecting oil and mineral deposits by theirminute effects on the nearby gravitational field. The SC light is alsoenabling technology to produce shorter pulses into attosecond (10⁻¹⁸sec) and zeptosecond (10⁻²¹ sec) regions.

An application with more immediate commercial implications thanultra-precise frequency measurements is telecommunications. Several ofthe SC's key properties make it an ideal basis for telecommunicationsystems that are capable of transmitting data more than 1,000 timesfaster than present-day systems. Optical fiber carrying IR light isalready the most widely used means of sending data at high rates overlong distances. In an effort to keep up with the ever-increasingworldwide demand for larger-capacity communications systems andnetworks, there is a need to include more data into a fiber. The goal isto achieve transmission rates of terabits (10¹²) and pentabits (10¹⁵)per second. Typical fiber-optic systems currently transmit data betweencities at about 10 gigabits per second, or 0.01 terabit per second.

The ultrabroad bandwidth of the SC light makes it a cost-effective wayto obtain numerous wavelength channels without having to use hundreds oflasers. That bandwidth could be utilized in superdense wavelengthdivision multiplexing, in which data streams are encoded onto manydifferent wavelengths of light that are transmitted simultaneously. TheSC, unlike the light from 100 individual lasers, can be coherent acrossa wide range of frequencies, which aids in the degree of control thatcan be brought to bear on the light.

Alternatively, a series of ultrashort pulses of the SC light (shorterthan 100 fs, or 10 ⁻¹³ second) can be sent, with sequences representingdifferent data channels interleaved with one another, referred to asTime-Division Multiplexing (TDM). With short pulses, it is important tobe able to control the precise relation between the individualoscillations of the electric field (the carrier wave) and the pulseenvelope. This property, referred to as the relative phase of thecarrier and the envelope, determines, for example, whether the peak ofthe pulse envelope occurs at an instant when the electric field of thewave is at a peak or a trough, or somewhere in between. The propertiesof the SC light facilitate such control.

Data transmission rates of terabits/second have already been achievedusing a small segment of the SC light spectrum. However, many challengesremain in order to improve the speed and achieve petabit/secondoperation. These challenges include reducing the duration of a bit toabout a ps and increasing the number of coherent wavelengths in the SC.

The telecommunication applications rely on producing the SC light in thecompletely controlled environment of an optical fiber; however, for someapplications the SC light is generated in open air. One such applicationis the remote sensing of molecular species present in air. When intenseultrafast laser pulses travel through the air, they can produce long,narrow “filaments” in which the air is ionized. Within those filamentselectrons are knocked off the air's molecules, forming a plasma ofpositive ions and negatively charged electrons. These filaments canguide the light pulses and keep them from spreading, a process thatscientists attribute to a balance between defocusing caused bydiffraction (the tendency for a wave to spread out from a smallaperture) and self-focusing caused by the ionized plasma.

Within the filaments a significant amount of the pulses' power canconvert to SC white light over distances greater than 20 meters.Pollutants and aerosols in the air will absorb the light atcharacteristic frequencies, and the broad spectrum of the SC lightenables one to detect their absorption spectra simultaneously in the UV,visible and IR bands.

In addition to probing the air around us, the SC light is useful inproducing high-resolution images of tissues within us. Optical CoherenceTomography (OCT), can be carried out in situ in living organisms as adiagnostic tool to measure tissue layers.

To produce an OCT image, a light is split into two parts. A first partof the light illuminates a spot in the sample, whereas a second part, ora reference light, enters a length of fiber. When the reference lightrecombines with light that the sample reflected or scattered, the twointerfere strongly, provided that they each spent the same length oftime on their respective journeys. High-resolution OCT imaging relies ona short coherence length of the source light, which requires a veryaccurate timing match.

Thus, when the spot of light penetrates into the sample, only lightcoming back from one specific depth will interfere with the referencelight. Scanning the light laterally across the sample while keeping thetravel time of the reference light fixed thereby produces atwo-dimensional image of the sample at a certain depth. The thickness ofthe layer that contributes to the image is called the axial resolutionof the image.

Early OCT imaging systems relied on a type of diode to provide the lightand had an axial resolution of 10 to 15 microns. The axial resolutionalso depends on the bandwidth of the light source. A broader bandwidthenables finer resolution. The SC light has a short coherence length anda bandwidth broader than any fs laser, making it ideal forhigh-resolution OCT imaging. The SC light generated in microstructuredfibers has been used to produce images of cells with an axial resolutionof 0.5 micron.

Light is also capable of photo-activating molecular components withintissue (in the matrix and/or cells) in order to fuse a cut together withminimal scarring using the water absorption from overtone andcombination vibrational bonds at 1450 nm, spanning from 1000 to 1600 nm.Tissue welding can be achieved using lasers, such as tunable Cr⁴⁺lasers, semiconductor lasers, and fiber lasers, where the weld strengthfollows the absorption spectrum of water. Tissue wounds, bruises, andburns can be healed using laser and lamp light covering UV to visibleregions at an average irradiance of ˜100 mW/cm². Microsecond pulsedlasers from 1850 nm to 2100 nm may be used to stimulate nerves, and tokill bacteria and viruses by exciting upper UV states with UV and bluelight transitions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made to address at least the aboveproblems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantagesdescribed below. Accordingly, an aspect of the present inventionprovides a method and an apparatus for providing the SC light formedical and biological applications

According to one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus isprovided for producing SC light for medical and biological applications.The apparatus includes a laser system for producing pulses. Theapparatus also includes at least one of a pressurized cell and one ormore fibers for receiving the pulses for conversion into the SC light ata specified rate of repetition and application of the SC light at thespecified rate of repetition to a tissue for medical and biologicalapplications. The pulses are focused through a lens having a focallength of approximately 100-200 centimeters (cm) for the pressurizedcell, and the pulses are focused through a microscope objective lenshaving 10×-40× magnification for the one or more fibers.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method isprovided for producing SC light for medical and biological applications.Pulses are produced from a laser system. The pulses are focused with atleast one of a lens having a focal length of approximately 100 to 200centimeters (cm) and a microscope objective lens having 10×-40×magnification. The lens focuses the pulses into a pressurized cell andthe microscope objective lens focuses the pulses into one or morefibers. The pulse is converted into the SC light at a specified rate ofrepetition. The SC light is applied at the specified rate of repetitionto tissue for medical and biological applications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more apparent from the following description whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is graph illustrating absorption spectral bands of electronicstates of key molecules in cells and tissue structure, according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating overtone and combination vibrationalabsorption bonds of water and collagen in tissue, according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating multiple photo transitions ofpolyatomic molecules to reach upper electronic states, according to anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an SC generation setup for medical andbiological applications, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail withreference to the accompanying drawings. The same or similar componentsmay be designated by the same or similar reference numerals althoughthey are illustrated in different drawings. Detailed descriptions ofconstructions or processes known in the art may be omitted to avoidobscuring the subject matter of the present invention.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are notlimited to their dictionary meanings, but are merely used to enable aclear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, itshould be apparent to those skilled in the art that the followingdescription of embodiments of the present invention are provided forillustrative purposes only and not for the purpose of limiting theinvention, as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Thus, for example, reference to “an identifier” includes reference toone or more of such identifiers.

The embodiments of the present invention relate to medical andbiological applications using the SC. The SC light is incorporated intothe field of medicine, specifically, for use in therapeutic biomedicalapplications in humans and animals, on the skin or within the body usingoptical fibers. Such applications may include the healing of wounds andbruises, the bonding of cut tissues, and the killing of bacteria andviruses through the generation of nonlinear effects. The SC lightconsists of ultrashort pulses spanning an ultrabroad spectral region ata high rate of repetition. The SC light spans the UV-visible-NIRspectrum with the ultrashort pulse duration being <10 ps, and typically<100 fs.

The brightness of the SC light surpasses that of the sun hitting thesurface of the earth, as well as other lasers over such a broad spectralcoverage. The spectrum of the SC light is so wide that it can excitemost molecules in tissue via single and multiple photon absorption fromelectronic transitions and combination and overtone vibrationaltransitions. The non-thermal excited state directly causes newinteractions, chemical reactions, optical catalysts, enzyme actions andthe formation of new bondings.

The SC light stimulates molecular activity of the native molecules inthe tissue by exciting their electronic states and overtone andcombination vibrational states via absorption. It is well known thatexcited energy states of molecules are the most active. For example, theenergy state of oxygen, which is normally in triplet state ³O₂, can beexcited to a singlet state ¹O₂ in order to oxidize surroundingmolecules. The key molecules and bonds in tissue that can be excited bythe SC light include collagen, elastin, tryptophan, water, proteins,NAPHs, genes, porphyrins, peptides, flavins, amino acids, blood,hemoglobin, and amide I, II, III, A.

On a molecular level, the distribution of excited molecules among higherenergy states will appear to be “hot” at temperature T₀, since thehigher energy states are far beyond the normal populations. Thephotoexcited molecules behave as if the system was heated to an extremetemperature (T₀) during the pumping time of <10 ps. However, the hostcontaining the non-excited molecules will actually be at roomtemperature T_(RT). The chemical reactions will proceed at a much fasterrate at the “hot” temperature, T₀, overcoming any potential barriers inreaction coordinate space and acting like an optical catalyst. There isno damage to the host since the tissue is not actually “hot.”

For example, photoexcited “hot” (T₀) molecules of water and collagenwill cause rebonding of the hydrogen bonds andcollagen-collagen-H₂O-bonds, where the collagen rewinds via H₂O couplingand matches up the ends of chains. Additionally, new collagen will formby photo stimulation.

The entire ultra-broad spectrum of the SC, or a selected portion usingoptical filters, can be used to selectively excite a particularmolecular group or bonds. In tissue, there are many key native moleculeswith absorptions from electronic transitions S₀→S₁, S₂ covering a280-500 nm band. The absorption spectral bands of electronic states ofkey molecules in cells and tissue structure are shown in FIG. 1. Thesemolecules include, for example, collagen at ˜340 nm, elastin at ˜380 nm,flavins at ˜300 nm, tryptophan at ˜280 nm, proteins at 280-400 nm, DNAat 230-280 nm, and RNA at 240-280 nm.

There are also key native molecules with absorptions from overtone andcombination vibrational modes covering the NIR band from 800-2500 nm.These molecules include water at 900-1600 and 1900 nm, collagen at1600-2500 nm, and elastin at 1700-2400 nm. The overtone and combinationvibrational absorption bonds of water and collagen in tissue are shownin FIG. 2. The absorption peaks of collagen are, for example, at 1750nm, 1950 nm, 2250, while those for elastin are, for example, at 1600 nm,1750 nm, 2150 nm, 2200 nm, and 2300 nm.

FIG. 3 shows multiple photon transitions of polyatomic molecules toreach upper electronic states for the ionization and destruction ofbacteria, viruses, and cancers. The SC light can have a spectralirradiance of GW/nm cm² from a selected spectral portion to createnonlinear optical effects in materials to enter into an extreme UVregion and excite molecules in upper electronic states, S_(n) (n=2, 3,4, . . . ). This disassociates polyatomic bonds and causes an avalanchebreakdown in organic molecules to kill bacteria, viruses, and cancers asshown in Equation (1) below:

The ground state S₀ absorbs photons from photon energy hv of SC followedby ionization and disassociation generating avalanche electrons e tobreak bonds as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a setup for medical andbiological applications for using the SC light from a fiber or gas cell,according to an embodiment of the present invention. In accordance withan embodiment of the present invention, <100 fs pulses from a lasersystem 402 are focused into a pressurized cell 404 containing a raregas, or a fiber 406, to convert an entire pump pulse of ˜1 mJ into theSC light at a repetition rate of ˜1 kiloHertz (kHz). The laser systemmay be a Ti-sapphire and Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) laser systemwith ˜400 nm and ˜800 nm pulses. The laser system may also be aCr:Forsterite laser system with ˜1250 nm pulses. The laser system mayfurther be a LiInGeO4 (LIGO) or LiInSiO4 (LISO) laser system with ˜1500nm pulses. The pressurized cell 404 has a length ranging from 100-150cm, and preferably ˜100 cm. The pressurized cell 404 contains ˜2-10atoms of a rare gas, such as (Ar), (Kr) or (Xe).

The pulses are focused through a long focus lens 408, having a focallength between approximately 100-200 cm, and preferably ˜150 cm, forintroduction into pressurized cell 404. Alternatively, the pulses may befocused through a microscope objective lens at approximately 10×-40×magnification for introduction to the fiber 406. The pulses proceedthrough an exiting lens to an optical filter wheel 410 with narrow bandfilters that are approximately 5-100 nm in width. A resulting centerfrequency, which covers UV, visible and NIR regions, is then deliveredto wound for healing effects.

For an SC span of about 1000 nm, a peak spectral energy is defined asshown in Equation (2) below:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{1\mspace{14mu}{mJ}}{1000\mspace{14mu}{nm}}\operatorname{=.}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

This value will give the peak spectral energy as defined as shown inEquation (3) below:

$\begin{matrix}{ɛ_{\lambda} = {\frac{1\mspace{14mu}\mu\; J}{nm}.}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

A peak spectral energy flux (irradiance-energy per area) of the SC lightfor a beam size of 1 nm is defined as shown in Equation (4) below:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{ɛ_{\lambda}}{A} = \frac{100\mspace{14mu}{\mu J}}{{nm}\;{cm}^{2}}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

For a 100 fs pulse, a peak spectral power intensity is defined as shownin Equation (5) below:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{P_{\lambda}}{A} = {\frac{10^{9}\mspace{14mu}{watt}}{{nm}\;{cm}^{2}} = {\frac{GW}{{nm}\;{cm}^{2}}.}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

This peak spectral power flux is sufficient to produce a variety ofnonlinear optical effects via χ₂, and χ₃ processes such as SHG,Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS), 4WM, Third Harmonic Generation (THG)and self-focusing at different spectral wavelength bands of 1 nm to 10nm at 1 GW/cm² to 10 GW/cm².

Focusing this SC beam into 100 μm an spot size results in a peakspectral power flux at the focal spot as defined in Equation (6) below:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{P_{\lambda}}{A} = {\frac{10^{11}\mspace{14mu}{watt}}{nm} = {0.1\frac{Terawatt}{nm}}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

There is enough power to ionize most materials and create nonlinearoptical effects with a spectral selected window of a few nanometers.This power level of the SC light in blue can produce two, three andhigher photon absorption transitions in tissue, bacteria and viruses,such that these elements and even cancers may be destroyed.

From Equation (4) above, the average spectral brightness

$\left( {{average}\mspace{14mu}{spectral}\mspace{14mu}{{irradiance}\left( \frac{power}{area} \right)}} \right)$of SC for a 1 kHz rate pulse train is defined as shown in Equation (7)below:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{{\overset{\_}{P}}_{\lambda}}{A} = {{\frac{100\mspace{14mu}{\mu j}}{{cm}^{2}{nm}} \times \left( {10^{3}\mspace{14mu}{Hz}} \right)} = {100\frac{milliwatts}{{nm}\;{cm}^{2}}}}} & (7)\end{matrix}$

The brightness of the SC light over the entire bandwidth of ˜1000 nm isdefined as shown in Equation (8) below:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{\overset{\_}{P}}{A} = \frac{100\mspace{14mu}{watts}}{{cm}^{2}}} & (8)\end{matrix}$

The brightness of the sun hitting the surface of the earth at 1370watt/m² is defined as shown in Equation (9) below:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{\overset{\_}{P}}{A} = {0.137\frac{watt}{{cm}^{2}}}} & (9)\end{matrix}$

The solid angle Ω of the sun is 7×10⁻⁵ radii and SC is ˜4×10⁻⁶ radii.The full SC white light brightness is more than the sun hitting theearth. Typical irradiance needed for healing is ˜10 mW/cm²-100 mW/cm² invisible and NIR using selected wavelengths. The SC light has thisirradiance.

The brightness of the sun or an intensity of a 1000 Watt/m² DC lamp has˜0.1 W/cm², which gives an energy within 10⁻¹³ sec over an area of 1cm², is defined in Equation (10) below:E=10⁻¹⁴ J  (10)

The energy of SC over 1 cm² in a one nanometer band is 100 μJ i.e. 10⁻⁴J. The ratio of energies between SC and E is defined in Equation (11)below:E _(SC) /E=10⁻⁴/10⁻¹⁴=10¹⁰  (11)

The energy of SC is much larger than Continuous Wave (CW) by over 10¹⁰for 100 fs.

The number of photons in SC at the wavelength of 500 nm is defined inEquation (12) below.N _(SC500)=2.5×10¹⁴ photons,  (12)

The number of photons in the light of the sun within 10⁻¹³ sec time spanis defined in Equation (13) below:N _(sun)=2.5×10⁴ photons  (13)

The ratio of Equation (14) can induce nonthermal reactions and changesin materials to heal.N _(SC500) /N _(sun)=10¹⁰,  (14)

Referring again to FIG. 4, a microstructure or photonic crystal fiber406 can be utilized in place of the pressurized cell 404. Small coremicrostructure fibers with an air filling factor (f) can cover UV,visible, and NIR regions using Self Phase Modulation (SPM), Cross PhaseModulation (XPM), 4WM, and soliton at pump wavelengths near zerodispersion fibers in the visible and NIR regions. For example, a 1 μmcore quartz fiber has two zero group velocity dispersion points at both550 nm and 1200 nm wavelengths for f=1, and a 1.7 μm core fiber has twozero dispersion points at 750 nm and 1500 nm with a full factor off=0.5. These fibers will produce the SC light from blue to NIR.

About a 600 nm diameter core fiber has two zero dispersion wavelengthsat 350 nm and 1200 nm. This fiber is ideal for SC generation and coversthe spectral band from 300 nm to 1400 nm spanning UV to NIR. The 1 μmcore fiber covers the SC light spectrum from 400 to 1400 nm using bothSPM and XPM.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 4, the SC light can be used for therapeuticapplications of healing wounds, healing bruises, healing burns, fusingcut tissue, and welding tissues by exciting electronic and vibrationalstates of the underlying molecules in tissue and skin. Tissues may behealed with less scarring, and arteries may be healed and fused withreduced scarring. The SC light can produce angiogenesis for an increasein new blood vessels, blood flow and improved healing. A small room mayalso be flooded with the SC light to heal tissue damage and wounds ofpatients.

As described above, upper electronic state excitation by multi photonabsorption (2, 3, and 4 photons from the SC) can lead to the rupturingof bonds and ionization of polyatomic molecules, such as bacteria,viruses, and cancers.

Nerve stimulation using electric pulses is used for therapeutictreatment of Parkinson, Alzheimer, and other brain and nerve diseases.Electrical stimulation of nerves requires contacts with metal electrodesinserted into tissue to make contact precisely near nerves in skin.Optical stimulation can deliver the signal deep into the tissue allowingmore selective excitation. IR laser pulse radiation at 1600 to 2300 nmis suitable to stimulate nerves. The SC light offers greater potentialto stimulate neural activity using a portion of a signal spectra from800 nm to 1700 nm to excite the vibrations of water and lipids in thetissue to transfer energy from water and lipids through overtone andcombination vibrations to axons and myelin complexes within the nerve.

Additional uses for the SC light in medical and biological applicationsinclude its use as a lamp in a projector during surgery to differentiateanatomical structures in selected colors. Specifically, deoxygenationand oxygenation regions and cancerous and non-cancerous regions may bedifferentiated, via scattering and emission from the key molecules intissues described above.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference tocertain embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled inthe art that various changes in form and detail may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as definedby the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for producing SuperContinuum (SC)light for medical and biological applications comprising: a laser systemfor producing pulses at <100femtoseconds (fs) and a spectral irradiance1-10 GW/nm cm²; and at least one of a pressurized cell containing a raregas pressurized at 2-10 atmospheres and comprising at least one of Argon(Ar), Krypton (Kr) and Xenon (Xe) and one or more fibers comprising atleast one of microstructure fibers and photonic crystal fibers, forreceiving the pulses for conversion into the SC light at a specifiedrate of repetition and application of the SC light at the specified rateof repetition to a tissue for medical and biological applications,wherein the pulses are focused through a lens having a focal length ofapproximately 100-200 centimeters (cm) for the pressurized cell, and thepulses are focused through a microscope objective lens having amagnification of approximately 10×-40× for the one or more fibers tocreate nonlinear optical effects in materials that excites moleculesinto upper electronic states to disassociate polyatomic bonds causing abreakdown in organic molecules for medical and biological applicationsincluding at least one of healing wounds, burns, cuts and bruises,fusing arteries, reducing scarring, producing angiogenesis, stimulatingnerves, and killing bacteria, viruses and cancer cells.
 2. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the pressurized cell has a length of approximately100 cm.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pump pulse is 1milliJoule (mJ) and the specified rate of repetition is 1 kiloHertz(kH).
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the laser system comprises atleast one of a Ti-sapphire and Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) lasersystem with 400 nanometer (nm) and 800 nm pulses, a Cr:Forsterite lasersystem with 1250 nm pulses, an LiInGeO4 (LIGO) laser system with 1500 nmpulses, and a LiInSiO4 (LISO) laser system with 1500 nm pulses.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein said laser system is adapted to generateSC light that stimulates molecular activity of native molecules in thetissue by exciting electronic states and overtone and combinationvibrational states of the native molecules via absorption.
 6. Theapparatus of claim 5, wherein said laser system is adapted to generate a280-500 nm band of the SC light to excite the electronic states of thenative molecules, and an 800-2500 nm band is used to excite overtone andcombination vibrational states of the native molecules.
 7. The apparatusof claim 6, wherein said laser system is arranged to excite the nativemolecules having electronic states of one or more of collagen, elastin,flavins, tryptophan, proteins, DNA and RNA.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6,wherein said laser system is arranged to excite the native moleculeshaving overtone and combination vibrational states of one or more ofwater, collagen and elastin.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, furthercomprising detection means for detecting absorption peaks of collagen atone or more of 1750 nm, 1950 nm and 2250 nm, and absorption peaks forelastin are at one or more of 1600 nm, 1750 nm, 2150 nm, 2200 nm and2300 nm.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nonlinear opticaleffects comprise SHG, Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS), 4 Wave Mixing(4WM), Third Harmonic Generation (THG) and self focusing.
 11. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein a spectrum of the SC light coveringUltraViolet (UV), visible and Near InfraRed (NIR) bands is createdthrough at least one of Self Phase Modulation (SPM). Cross PhaseModulation (XPM) and 4WM.
 12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein saidlaser system is arranged to produce an 800-1700 nm band of the SC lightstimulates nerves to be activated via vibrational excitation of waterand lipid molecules near the nerves for therapeutic improvement of nervebased diseases.
 13. An apparatus for producing SuperContinuum (SC) lightfor medical and biological applications comprising: a. a laser systemfor producing pulses of approximately milliJoule (mJ); b. a first lenshaving a focal length of approximately 100-200 centimeters (cm) forreceiving the pulses produced by the laser system; c. a pressurizedcell, pressurized at 2-10 atmospheres (atm) and having a length ofapproximately within the range of 100-150 cm, for receiving the pulsesafter being focused through the first lens for conversion into the SClight at a specified rate of repetition of approximately 1 kiloHertz(kH) at approximately 80 mega Hertz; d. an exiting second lens receivingthe SC light at the specified rate of repetition from the pressurizedcell; and e. an optical filter wheel downstream of said exiting secondlens having narrow band filters, approximately 5-100 nanometers (rim) inwidth, for selectively filtering the SC light, focused through thesecond lens, for application of the SC light within a band of 280-500 nmat the specified rate of repetition to a tissue to selectively exciteelectronic states of native molecules and 800-2500 nm band is used toexcite overtones and combination vibrational states of the nativemolecules or of a molecular group or bond to treat a specified medicalcondition using one, two and three photon absorption.
 14. The apparatusof claim 13, wherein wherein the SC light has a spectral irradiance ofequal to at least 1 GW/nm cm² that creates nonlinear optical effects inmaterials that excites molecules into upper electronic states anddisassociates polyatomic bonds causing a breakdown in organic moleculesfor medical and biological applications including at least one ofhealing wounds, burns, cuts and bruises, fusing arteries, reducingscarring, producing angiogenesis, stimulating nerves, and killingbacteria, viruses and cancer cells.
 15. The apparatus of claim 10,wherein the nonlinear optical effects comprise SHG, Stimulated RamanScattering (SRS), 4 Wave Mixing (4WM), Third Harmonic Generation (THG)and self focusing.
 16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein a spectrum ofthe SC light covering UltraViolet (UV), visible and Near InfraRed (NIR)bands is created through at least one of Self Phase Modulation (SPM),Cross Phase Modulation (XPM) and 4WM use one, two or three photonabsorption.
 17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the tissue isirradiated at a level of approximately 100 mW/cm².
 18. The apparatus ofclaim 13, wherein the SC light is within wavelength zones of lessscattering to enhance using the optical windows of tissue and water likemedia, imaging deep into tissue when imaging brain, prostate, breast bylinear and nonlinear (2 or 3 photon absorption).
 19. An apparatus forproducing SuperContinuum (SC) light for medical and biologicalapplications comprising: a. a laser system for producing pulses ofapproximately milliJoule (mJ); b. at least one of a first lens having afocal length of approximately 100-200centimeters (cm) and a microscopeobjective lens having 10×-40×magnification for receiving the pulsesproduced by the laser system; c. at least one of a pressurized cell,pressurized at 2-10 atmospheres (atm) and having a length ofapproximately within the range of 100-150 cm, for receiving the pulsesafter being focused through said first lens for conversion into the SClight at a specified rate of repetition of approximately 1 kiloHertz(kH) at approximately 80 mega Hertz, and one or more fibers forreceiving said pulses after passage through said microscope objectivelens focusing said pulses into said one or more fibers; d. an exitingsecond lens receiving the SC light at the specified rate of repetitionfrom the pressurized cell; and e. an optical filter wheel downstream ofsaid exiting second lens having narrow band filters, approximately 5-100nanometers (nm) in width, for selectively filtering the SC light,focused through the second lens, for application of the SC light withina band of 280-500nm at the specified rate of repetition to a tissue toselectively excite electronic states of native molecules and 800-2500 nmband is used to excite overtones and combination vibrational states ofthe native molecules or of a molecular group or bond to treat aspecified medical condition using one, two and three photon absorption.